[pdn362]

First thanks for supporting this forum, it is an amazing place to bounce ideas and get feedback!

I’m looking for some thoughts on modifying a 7 day per week program into my current work schedule, which is a 48 hr on/ 96 hr off rotation. I get a short amount of time for workouts during my 48 on (about 30-45 minutes on one of those days, sometimes both days but also sometimes neither day). The question is mostly about fatigue and recovery management. Let us propose that I average about 3-5 hrs of sleep per night while on duty (not great, but you get what you get) followed by about 11-12 hrs my fist night off and 9-10 hrs for the next 3 nights.

What are your thoughts on when to perform the longest Z1 workouts? How about Z3 workouts when they’re in the mix? How much volume is actually responsible within these constraints? i.e. are workouts on my first off day, after 2 nights of lacking sleep actually making a positive contribution?

Thanks in advance!

Topic

[Anonymous]

Anonymous on October 22, 2019 at 11:04 am #30659

Some of the answer to this question will depend on how physically demanding your job is during those 48 hours on. Sleep deprivation will have a big impact on recovery and just normal function. I recently read study conducted on ultra runners that determined that central nervous system (brain) fatigue had a significant impact on endurance performance. But one of the interesting things the study mentioned is that these runners can actually bank sleep so that during the sleep deprivation times they were not as severely affected. Might be worth trying.

As for the order of workouts in the 4 days off: I’d think that easing back to the training so that you first couple of days, till you get caught up on sleep are a bit easier training load wise and then saving the harder training days (either long or more intense) for the last 2 days.

I don’t think is going to one “right” answer for this and you will have to experiment to see what works best.

Scott